While many people associate going green with inconvenient and expensive lifestyle changes, there are actually several cheap and easy adjustments you can make around the house to significantly shrink your carbon footprint.
To make it as easy as possible for you to transform your house into a clean energy haven, we’ve rounded up a list of the easiest eco-friendly changes right here.
1. Use a Pressure Cooker
You’ll be doing both the environment and yourself a favor by investing in a pressure cooker. The kitchen gadget, which speeds up the time it takes to cook a stovetop meal, allegedly reduces cooking time by as much as 70 percent, which means less energy used preparing your favorite pot roasts, pastas, and potatoes.
2. And Opt For the Toaster Oven
If you’re cooking a small meal for one, opt for your toaster over instead of your larger electric oven. The U.S. Department of Energy found that toaster ovens used up to half as much energy compared to a conventional electric oven, primarily because a conventional oven requires preheating or is more frequently opened and closed throughout the cooking process, which lets the heat out.
3. Light Up the House with LEDs
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) use 75 percent less energy and last 25 times longer than incandescent lighting. And not only do they have the potential to save the environment, they’ll also save you a huge chunk of money on your energy bill.
4. Compost Your Scraps
Even the most efficient eaters are going to end up with scraps of food to throw away at the end of a meal. But instead of throwing them into the trash, the more eco-friendly thing to do is to store them in a bin for composting. As one study from the University of Washington found, food waste in landfills is one of the leading causes of methane, but composting prevents the food’s decomposition and subsequent release of greenhouse gases.
“Putting your food waste in the compost bin can really help reduce methane emissions from landfills, so it’s an easy thing to do that can have a big impact,” lead study author Sally Brown said in a press release. And the U.S. Composting Council has created a convenient map of the composting locations across the United States so you can find a location near you!
5. Put Away the Plastic Bottles
Putting your plastic water bottle in the recycling bin doesn’t make up for the fact that you’re using a plastic bottle in the first place, unfortunately. According to The Water Project, an estimated 80 percent of all plastic water bottles in the United States get tossed in with the trash, and only 20 percent of the bottles that are recycled can actually be used for recycling. And as for the bottles that are thrown away, they take over 1,000 years to biodegrade. Buy a reusable bottle instead and you’ll be saving the environment with every sip.
6. Adopt Meatless Monday
Skipping out on the sausage for just one day a week can have a surprisingly huge impact on the environment. According to the Earth Day Network, eating one less burger a week for a year has the same environmental impact as taking your car off the road for 320 miles.
7. Fix a Leaky Faucet
The slow, excruciating drip of a leaky faucet is enough to drive anyone insane. Add to that the fact that one drip every second adds up to five gallons of wasted water per day, and you have no excuse not to call a plumber ASAP.
8. Shorten Your Showers
Don’t dawdle in the shower just because the warm water feels nice on your skin. Shortening your shower by as little as one minute can save up to 150 gallons of water per month. And if you keep your shower until five minutes total, you can save up to 1,000 gallons monthly.
9. Unplug Unused Electronics
Want to save the planet in seconds? Just unplug. “The simplest and most obvious way to eliminate power losses is to unplug products when not in use,” write the authors of Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings – 9th Edition. If you don’t feel like pulling every lamp and charger out of the outlet when you leave the house, use a power strip instead—it’ll leave you with just a single thing to unplug.
10. Line Dry Your Laundry
Want to save energy and money? Nix the dryer altogether and instead, try line drying your laundry. The EPA determined that a dryer uses more energy than a refrigerator, washer, and dishwasher, and line drying can reduce energy usage from major appliances in a typical household by as much as one-third.
11. Don’t Pre-Rinse Your Dishes
In perhaps the greatest news of all time, energy-saving experts are advising not to pre-wash your dishes before throwing them in the dishwasher. In fact, doing so is a waste of both water and time. Instead, ditch the double wash and scrape any leftover food into the compost, then pop your dishes straight into the machine.
12. Buy Pre-Loved Products
Take a page out of Macklemore’s book and head to the thrift store for your next shopping spree. As Richard Robbins highlighted in his book Global Problem and the Culture of Capitalism, consumerism and the production process have a detrimental environmental impact.
“The production, processing, and consumption of commodities requires the extraction and use of natural resources (wood, ore, fossil fuels, and water),” Robbins wrote. Every time you buy new clothing, you’re contributing to the release of environmental toxins and, if you’re into fast fashion, a ton of easily-avoidable waste. By buying pre-loved goods, we can stop contributing to this negative cycle.
